The Riders
by neverevesangel
Summary: Brief character studies on the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse.
1. Death

**DEATH**

They call me brother but deep down they fear me. I see it in their eyes when they cower. I hear it in their voices when they call me _Lord_.

They are terrified, and they _should_ be. I am as old as Life itself and they - they are but dreams, imaginations of fickle and short-lived creatures.

When the end finally comes, it all seems to go according to Plan. There are no instructions for us, no maps, or names, or destinations. We ride and we know.

But it turns out we know less than we thought. This is unexpected.

Eleven years old, barely the size of an atom in the grand scheme of things, the boy casts them down, one by one. My siblings, young and wild as they are, they cease to exist before him. I should have known. It was all too easy.

Then he speaks to me, and he does so without fear.

"This all has to stop now."

IT HAS STOPPED.

Reprieve for Earth, for mankind. It will not last. Even now I feel them materialise again, from the bloody fantasies of a father, the obsession of a cheerleader, the carelessness of a worker. They will be back.

I turn away from the boy, curious as he may be. I turn away to watch from the distance, to see if I might have known had I looked before. And I feel Her eyes on me, feel Her smile knowingly from somewhere above. Yes, it is ineffable.

And yet - I should have known.

When She deigns to call me into Her realm, it is to play a game of chess. There is no one else as old as Her. No one who is not at Her mercy, and a pawn in her Plan. Her queen is made of marble and moves unpredictably. After all millennia of existence there has yet to be a game that does not end in a draw.

YOU PLANNED THIS ALONG. ARMAGEDDON WAS A FARCE.

Her eyes twinkle like frozen stars. "Was it? Your turn."

And we play as the boy's time on Earth ticks by. War rises in the east, Famine ravages the lands, Pollution poisons their rivers. Perhaps it has all just been delayed. When has anything ever gone according to plan?

But I am creation's shadow.

Oh, and I should have known.


	2. Famine

**FAMINE**

Among the first lessons he learns in the Modern Age is that the title of Doctor is not so much a sign of qualification as it is a tool to gain the trust of quite literally anyone.

He likes that. He starts going by the name of Sable, Raven Sable. Doctor. The humans with their funny little brains eat up his every word. They hang at his lips and worship the truths he feeds them.

First, he teaches them about themselves. He shows them just a glimpse of what could be, tickling that never-ending desire for more until they'd kill to get it. When they have done it once, they will do it again, even if slowly, very slowly that one horrible suspicion comes creeping into their minds. The suspicion that it will never be enough.

No matter how many bottles of fifty-year-old wine they can afford to drink in one evening.

No matter how many charity galas they throw to soothe their conscience.

Then he teaches them about balance. It is right for some to have nothing and others to have everything. Only you deserve greatness, only you deserve wealth. You are special. Infinite happiness, the perfect life, it's all right there.

Go get it.

There is a cost to everything, a price to pay. That is his third lesson. Sometimes you don't have to pay it yourself - in fact, you should always aspire to have somebody else pay it for you. After all, life is brief. Why suffer needlessly?

You know you don't want to.

Doctor Raven Sable sits in dimly lit back rooms and drinks expensive Jamaica rum. The rich and the successful cater to him and he knows they will do whatever he wants to keep him around. Somehow he makes them feel like they can have anything and the notion tugs excitedly at their sleeves, and doesn't let go.

For a while they address him as teacher. He remembers that title with a fond smile. But time moved on and being a teacher became unfashionable. Now they call him personality coach.

After a while, that starts to bore him though, and he returns his attention to the common folk. In the late twentieth century - after his sister moved on from Europe to other parts of the world - he discovers that humans can hunger even when there is food in abundance. All he has to do is give them a reason to and they starve themselves willingly. This fascinates him.

Diets, and nutritional facts, and special foods become his speciality, an intricate net of half-truths and healthy secrets. Fortunately he is a doctor.

Don't you want to lose weight?

Watching them torture themselves is sweeter than killing their cattle and freezing their wheat. It is sweeter because this time they could but they don't and the desperate, frenzied wanting fills him out and rises up until he is everywhere.

He is in their heads and he leads them gently into their worst nightmares.

He is the nagging, and the hunger, and the craving.

He is the need and the absence of the needed.

He is Famine.

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